The Lunch Lady is a foodie at heart with a quest to share delicious, simple, wholesome food with anyone who wants to be inspired.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Soak it! ~ Oatmeal

A fairly new favorite in our family is homemade oatmeal. We love a nice hot bowl of steaming oatmeal filled with chunks of apples and swimming with butter and maple syrup. Yup! I eat this way and still lost over 10 pounds.﻿

Homemade oatmeal is super easy to make. No recipe required.

I soak my oats overnight so that they are easier to digest. It's tough to digest whole oats. When you soak them, the breakdown process begins and by the time you cook the oats, they are easily digested.

An easy ratio to remember is 1 cup oats : 4 cups of water﻿

﻿I double the batch nowadays so I put 8 cups of water in a large lidded pot and bring to a boil. Once it reaches a boil, remove from the heat and dump in the 2 cups of oats. I also add a pinch of sea salt and some ground organic cinnamon. Give it a stir and put the lid on and leave it on the counter or stove over night.

Oats. Let's talk about oats.

We only eat wholegrains so we like our oats rolled or steel cut. I need a little crunch and the steel cut oats give me something to chew on when I eat oatmeal.

I like to use half rolled and half steel cut. Steel cut are also known as "Irish Oats." Just in case you're wonderin'.﻿

In case you noticed the prices on the bags, buying organic oats is NOT expensive. Make the switch! Find a source that sells bulk organic grains. Food buying clubs are practically everywhere. I found mine in a Health Food store in Amish Country.

﻿In the morning, place the pot back on a burner and turn to medium heat. Stir occasionally for 9-12 minutes (so exact, I know!)

I like to cut up an apple or two and throw them in the cooking oatmeal right away. By the time the oatmeal is done, the apples are nice and soft. You can tell the oatmeal is done when it's nice a thick and not watery anymore.

Lately, we've been putting butter and organic maple syrup on top.﻿

We used to put a lot of brown sugar on. We are trying to lessen the sugar intake in our home so we are going toward more natural sugar sources like raw honey and maple syrup.

4 comments:

I've loved oatmeal since I was a kid. Dad used to make the hot cereal in our house. Oatmeal,Wheatena,Cream of Wheat, were the favorites. Since it's just my husband and I, I get the Mccann's steel cut oatmeal and just cook as directed. Great stuff!

And just two cups of oatmeal feed six people? I have tried it overnight in the crock pot with apples and it is a dismal disappointment. BUT, I will have to try this AND bake it......if we aren't late for church (which we alllllwwwwwaaaaayyyyyyssssss are). It's gotta be healthier than Cinnamon Rolls! That said...we buy our oatmeal bulk at an Amish store too. ;)